General automobiles utilize various types of lighting fixtures for causing pedestrians to perceive the presence of automobiles, such as a daytime running light (DRL), a turn signal lamp, a tail end lamp, a stop lamp, etc.
A light emitting module for use in a vehicle headlight is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-146750 (or US2014/0211449A1 corresponding this Japanese publication) as a lighting fixture (such as DRL) other than the main headlamp. The light emitting module can include a plurality of light emitting elements linearly arranged, and a light guiding body layer configured to guide light emitted from the light emitting element when turned on. Further included is a fluorescent substance resin layer containing a fluorescent substance and covering the light guiding body layer on or in which the light emitting elements are provided.
With this configuration, when the light emitting elements are turned on, the emitted light can enter the light guiding body layer and also enter the fluorescent substance resin layer directly and indirectly via the light guiding body layer. Consequently, even when the plurality of light emitting elements are controlled to be turned on sequentially one by one, the surface of the fluorescent substance resin layer having an increased area can be uniformly illuminated with light, thereby resulting in uniform luminance of light from the fluorescent substance resin layer.
In the light emitting module of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-146750, the luminance of light from the surface of the fluorescent substance resin layer is made uniform, and therefore, the light emitting module cannot be used as a lighting unit for projecting light with a predetermined low beam or high beam light distribution including a cutoff line for preventing generation of glare light with respect to a driver of a preceding vehicle running in front of a vehicle having the lighting unit installed thereon.
Furthermore, some vehicle headlamp apparatuses, such as those disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2009-184642, 2009-218155 (or US2009/0231866A1 corresponding this Japanese publication), 2013-054993 (or EP2567867A2 corresponding this Japanese publication), can form a light distribution pattern by irradiation of light from a plurality of light sources for a headlamp provided in a vehicle. The light distribution pattern is varied corresponding to the position of an oncoming vehicle or pedestrian existing in front of the vehicle with time.
However, each of the light sources cannot form a main light distribution pattern but they can form an additional light distribution pattern together.